The Astana International Financial Centre is heavily involved in developing and promoting Islamic finance, which makes use of both bonds (sukuks) and private placements to finance projects.
In June 2022 the first Shari’ah compliant Exchange Traded Notes – iX Islamic ETNs with the shares of iShares MSCI World Islamic UCITS ETF (“ISDW”) as an underlying asset were listed on the AIX. ISDW is one of the largest Islamic funds with investment made exclusively in Shari’ah compliant securities.
In December 2020 the AIX announced the cross-listing of three Sukuk issuances of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB). The listed instruments comprise of three 5-year maturity tranches of EUR 1 billion (Green Sukuk), US$ 1.5 billion (Sustainability Sukuk) and US$ 2 billion (traditional Sukuk).
“We are delighted to welcome the listing of three notable IsDB Sukuk on AIX aimed at fostering impact investing practices, supporting COVID-19 relief initiatives and achieving Sustainable Development Goals. We encourage the IsDB member countries to fully utilise the AIFC platform and look forward to seeing AIX amongst the top Sukuk listing venues,” stated Dr. Kairat Kelimbetov, AIFC Governor (IsDB Governor for Kazakhstan).
QIIB initially listed the Sukuk on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) for 500 mln. USD with a fixed coupon of 4.264% per annum.
The Astana International Exchange is heavily involved in developing and promoting Islamic finance, which makes use of bonds (sukuks) and private placements to finance projects.